I predict 90% of malls will be closed in 10 years (1 Viewer)

[PIK95]

I doubt today's mall kids are more nefarithan we were, lol. We used to glue giant &^dos all over the place to scare old ladies, we set fire to dumpsters, we would steal pets (mice) and set them free in the food courts, we would put lit cigarettes in the giant plant pots, and lay bottle rockets and m80's across them and walk away. We would steal bouncy balls from the toy stores, and then hurl them into the convertible sunglass huts from above. Some of us would steal entire shipments of comic books from the book stores. We assaulted the Easter Bunny in his lair and one kid poured a shake on him from above while he had a huge line of kids. I could go on....

Well -- that's what led to some malls closing at 7 pm and stuff like that. My set was pretty tame -- shoplifting clothes was probably the absolute worst thing any of my cohort did.

Today's mall kids essentially don't exist.

The good news is security technology has come a long way. And contrary to popular FBG belief, these kids are pretty tame now. Super bored, but tame. They are trying to find an identity imo. Covid made it a weird time for them.

 

[PIK95]

Kids are better behaved and the world is safer yet as a society we are less hospitable to teens loitering and far more protective of them. I think it’s doing them a major disservice and probably has all kinds of really consequences.

This times 100! Exactly

 

[PIK95]

I doubt today's mall kids are more nefarithan we were, lol. We used to glue giant &^dos all over the place to scare old ladies, we set fire to dumpsters, we would steal pets (mice) and set them free in the food courts, we would put lit cigarettes in the giant plant pots, and lay bottle rockets and m80's across them and walk away. We would steal bouncy balls from the toy stores, and then hurl them into the convertible sunglass huts from above. Some of us would steal entire shipments of comic books from the book stores. We assaulted the Easter Bunny in his lair and one kid poured a shake on him from above while he had a huge line of kids. I could go on....

Today's mall kids essentially don't exist.

Ironically they exist more than ever. They are just not at the mall.

 

[JohnnyU]

Kids are better behaved and the world is safer yet as a society we are less hospitable to teens loitering and far more protective of them. I think it’s doing them a major disservice and probably has all kinds of really consequences.

This times 100! Exactly

Except for the occasional organized through social media mall riots

 

[PIK95]

One more quick thought before I leave for a bit. The cops around here have kinda given up on harassing kids and looking for petty crimes. They don't even bother unless it's a car accident or big crime. You don't see random police around at all actually. If you are doing something basic like burning a fire pit (rat neighbor) they will eventually stop by, say hey, and tell you how to do it legally. This has allowed kids to kinda just roam free now without harassment. It feels 80's to me in that regard. Seeing kids and bikes on the streets again. I think it's a good thing.

 

[jobarules]

The mall by me is jam packed every weekend.

 

[JohnnyU]

The mall by me is jam packed every weekend.

Obviously depends on the area. I said some are thriving still, but most aren’t. I like was said earlier about open air concept spread out a couple of blocks with shoppes and restaurants. I believe that is the future, not traditional inside malls.

 

[Doug B]

They are trying to find an identity imo. Covid made it a weird time for them.

Agreed with this. I will say that COVID has almost zero to do with teens not hanging out at malls anymore.

 

[Doug B]

Ironically they exist more than ever. They are just not at the mall.

I can believe it -- where would you say they are at these days?

 

[Doug B]

One more quick thought before I leave for a bit. The cops around here have kinda given up on harassing kids and looking for petty crimes. They don't even bother unless it's a car accident or big crime. You don't see random police around at all actually. If you are doing something basic like burning a fire pit (rat neighbor) they will eventually stop by, say hey, and tell you how to do it legally. This has allowed kids to kinda just roam free now without harassment. It feels 80's to me in that regard. Seeing kids and bikes on the streets again. I think it's a good thing.

None of this has kicked in around here.

 

[PIK95]

They are trying to find an identity imo. Covid made it a weird time for them.

Agreed with this. I will say that COVID has almost zero to do with teens not hanging out at malls anymore.

Kids in droves do hang out at the malls here. It's just before 7pm which is weird. They don't seem to go to the movies much. That industry is the one in big trouble I would assume.

 

[PIK95]

One more quick thought before I leave for a bit. The cops around here have kinda given up on harassing kids and looking for petty crimes. They don't even bother unless it's a car accident or big crime. You don't see random police around at all actually. If you are doing something basic like burning a fire pit (rat neighbor) they will eventually stop by, say hey, and tell you how to do it legally. This has allowed kids to kinda just roam free now without harassment. It feels 80's to me in that regard. Seeing kids and bikes on the streets again. I think it's a good thing.

None of this has kicked in around here.

Its coming I would think.
Where are you again? I'm in RI suburbs.

 

[jobarules]

The mall by me is jam packed every weekend.

Obviously depends on the area. I said some are thriving still, but most aren’t. I like was said earlier about open air concept spread out a couple of blocks with shoppes and restaurants. I believe that is the future, not traditional inside malls.

Ironically the one by me thats always packed is the protypical mall. It is centrally located. Meanwhile they recently opened an open air style outlet mall by the ferry and nobody goes to it as its too out of the way and stores are closing. So for my experience has been the exact opposite.

 

[PIK95]

Ironically they exist more than ever. They are just not at the mall.

I can believe it -- where would you say they are at these days?

Ding dong ditching people and partying in the woods. Smoking hela weed now. Wait, that was happening in the 70's, right?

 

[Doug B]

Where are you again? I'm in RI suburbs.

New Orleans suburbs.

 

[JohnnyU]

Ironically they exist more than ever. They are just not at the mall.

I can believe it -- where would you say they are at these days?

Ding dong ditching people and partying in the woods. Smoking hela weed now. Wait, that was happening in the 70's, right?

We smoked our share of everything in the 70s. I grew up in a small town and Malls weren’t a thing back then, even if we had one.

 

[Ilov80s]

Kids are better behaved and the world is safer yet as a society we are less hospitable to teens loitering and far more protective of them. I think it’s doing them a major disservice and probably has all kinds of really consequences.

This times 100! Exactly

Except for the occasional organized through social media mall riots

There has never been a single mall riot that I’ve seen reported on anywhere around where I live and I’m near plenty of low SES places. We have had kids meet at the mall and fight. I wouldn’t call that a riot. I also don’t find that too different from what happened when I was a teen 25 years ago. It’s not just anecdotal, actual research supports all this.

 

[Dr. Octopus]

Kids are better behaved and the world is safer yet as a society we are less hospitable to teens loitering and far more protective of them. I think it’s doing them a major disservice and probably has all kinds of really consequences.

This times 100! Exactly

Except for the occasional organized through social media mall riots

You’ve mentioned this a few times. Is this really a thing? Never heard of it around here or on the news at least.

 

[Keerock]

Might just be because I'm old, but the "kids" that hang out there are more nefarious and rowdy than when I was a kid or my kids were kids.

This was often heard down here circa 2000-2005. The "mall retailers vs hang-out kids" thing likely had an influence on the acceptability of the easy-breezy 1980s ethic of "Mom, I'm going to be at the mall!"

I doubt today's mall kids are more nefarithan we were, lol. We used to glue giant &^dos all over the place to scare old ladies, we set fire to dumpsters, we would steal pets (mice) and set them free in the food courts, we would put lit cigarettes in the giant plant pots, and lay bottle rockets and m80's across them and walk away. We would steal bouncy balls from the toy stores, and then hurl them into the convertible sunglass huts from above. Some of us would steal entire shipments of comic books from the book stores. We assaulted the Easter Bunny in his lair and one kid poured a shake on him from above while he had a huge line of kids. I could go on....

But kids today are worse, lol. No.

LOL... I stand corrected. We were never that nefarious. That being said, I'm talking mostly about shoplifting, fighting, robbing/bullying other shoppers, etc. More than what I would consider "keds being kids". I think I live in a pretty nice area, but the mall is a kind of outlier in terms of safety/lawlessness.

 

[JohnnyU]

Kids are better behaved and the world is safer yet as a society we are less hospitable to teens loitering and far more protective of them. I think it’s doing them a major disservice and probably has all kinds of really consequences.

This times 100! Exactly

Except for the occasional organized through social media mall riots

You’ve mentioned this a few times. Is this really a thing? Never heard of it around here or on the news at least.

You probably wouldn't see that on CNN or MSNBC Just google teenage mall riots. It's not frequent and I did use the word "occasional".

 

[Ilov80s]

Kids are better behaved and the world is safer yet as a society we are less hospitable to teens loitering and far more protective of them. I think it’s doing them a major disservice and probably has all kinds of really consequences.

This times 100! Exactly

Except for the occasional organized through social media mall riots

You’ve mentioned this a few times. Is this really a thing? Never heard of it around here or on the news at least.

You probably wouldn't see that on CNN or MSNBC Just google teenage mall riots. It's not frequent and I did use the word "occasional".

Right, I would expect to see it on local news. I still do go through the Detroit Free Press online almost daily (what a joke it’s become though).

 

[massraider]

I predict 90% of adults who miss malls from 1986 would run to the local Facebook group and whinge and whine if groups of teens were spotted hanging out at the mall again, that's what I predict

 

[PIK95]

I predict 90% of adults who miss malls from 1986 would run to the local Facebook group and whinge and whine if groups of teens were spotted hanging out at the mall again, that's what I predict

Unfortunately I agree. 95% of them would be people born before 1974 imo.

 

[dickey moe]

I miss Sears. We used to get all of our appliances, TVs, Timberlands, some clothes and a lot of tools there. Could also get appliance and lawn care parts too.

We lost quality for cheap and available and now we have neither.

We used to buy Star Wars figures there in the late 70's.

So did I. They were in a huge bin in the middle of the floor. I remember buying IG-88 and R2-D2 with periscope for $2 each when TESB came out. Wish I would've kept them in the package.

 

[Dr. Octopus]

Kids are better behaved and the world is safer yet as a society we are less hospitable to teens loitering and far more protective of them. I think it’s doing them a major disservice and probably has all kinds of really consequences.

This times 100! Exactly

Except for the occasional organized through social media mall riots

You’ve mentioned this a few times. Is this really a thing? Never heard of it around here or on the news at least.

You probably wouldn't see that on CNN or MSNBC Just google teenage mall riots. It's not frequent and I did use the word "occasional".

Probably not since I do not watch those channels, but I kind of figured you were exaggerating.

 

[Keerock]

I predict 90% of adults who miss malls from 1986 would run to the local Facebook group and whinge and whine if groups of teens were spotted hanging out at the mall again, that's what I predict

I predict 90% of adults who miss malls from 1986 would run to the local Facebook group and whinge and whine if groups of teens were spotted hanging out at the mall again, that's what I predict

Unfortunately I agree. 95% of them would be people born before 1974 imo.

I was born before 1974, and encourage teens to hang out at the mall. Any people at the mall is generally good for businesses. Just don't want them to shoplift, loot, fight, or terrorize other shoppers.

 

[PIK95]

I miss Sears. We used to get all of our appliances, TVs, Timberlands, some clothes and a lot of tools there. Could also get appliance and lawn care parts too.

We lost quality for cheap and available and now we have neither.

We used to buy Star Wars figures there in the late 70's.

So did I. They were in a huge bin in the middle of the floor. I remember buying IG-88 and R2-D2 with periscope for $2 each when TESB came out. Wish I would've kept them in the package.

I had the OG pack and both Snaggles. I had almost everything New Hope really.

 

[Courtjester]

I miss Sears. We used to get all of our appliances, TVs, Timberlands, some clothes and a lot of tools there. Could also get appliance and lawn care parts too.

We lost quality for cheap and available and now we have neither.

My earliest memory of Sears was going there when the Atari 2600 came out and they had it set up so you could play it. I just turned 8 and man, kids would stand in line to get a shot at trying that out. Don't even get me started about when the Intellivision was released and we would run to the back of the store to play that thing.

And the arrival of the Christmas catalog was just as good as Christmas itself. AFX Slot car tracks always looked so cool and you would assemble them on Christmas morning and inevitably break the really important power track piece right off the bat. The cars would always go flipping off the track no matter what you did. When the ability to switch lanes came out---just wow!! I miss those days.

 

[jvdesigns2002]

I can see a decent amount of malls closing, but I don’t know if I think it will be 90% over 10 years. Even with the shopping conveniences that technology has created, I think that people still have an insatiable need to be around and congregate around others. I also believe that scarcity is a big driver (especially in the United States) in regards to where people choose to spend their time and money. If 90% of malls close—the few remaining ones will be magnets for the masses and people will travel longer distances to go to one. This will spark a development cycle to create more malls. I personally think that perhaps the number of malls might be reduced by 50-60% in 10 years—-but I don’t think 90%. The effects of scarcity amongst the American consumer wouldn’t allow for a drop that steep imo.